Scholar explores the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s vital yet overlooked role in IP enforcement.
Americans often associate the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with armed patrols, drug busts, and counterterrorism operations. Rarely do they picture CBP as an enforcer of intellectual property (IP) rights.
In a recent working paper, law professor Jorge L. Contreras brings to light CBP’s overlooked role in protecting IP rights. He argues that, contrary to what some think, CBP has the expertise to evaluate complex technologies and legal claims.
In 2003, CBP was created within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, bringing together the U.S. Customs Service and related agencies. CBP’s IP enforcement takes three forms: blocking infringing imports through its statutory authority; carrying out federal judicial injunctions in IP cases; and enforcing exclusion orders issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
Contreras, the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, explains that the bulk of CBP’s IP enforcement occurs under its statutory authority in U.S. copyright and trademark matters. In 2024 alone, the agency seized more than 32 million infringing items valued at $5.4 billion—including 5 million handbags and wallets, 3.7 million counterfeit pharmaceutical products, and 1 million articles of clothing.
CBP’s statutory authority over U.S. copyrights arises from the Copyright Act, which empowers the agency to seize infringing imports, Contreras notes. The Tariff Act and the Lanham Act also authorize CBP to seize goods that infringe registered U.S. trademarks.
Similarly, Contreras observes that CBP has the authority to seize goods that infringe U.S. trade names and semiconductor mask work rights, although such cases are rare.
Read more
